Latest news with #KennethMejia
Epoch Times
30-04-2025
- Business
- Epoch Times
Los Angeles City Controller Updates Residents on Budget Woes
Commentary California's counties usually have a budget department and an elected auditor-controller. The controller handles the disbursements and the annual audit but rarely gets involved in the budget process. The city of Los Angeles, the second most populated city in the nation behind New York City, also has an elected controller who runs citywide. And the role is similar to that of a county, where auditor-controllers run countywide and supervisors run in five districts. The advantage of being independently elected is that the controller can be more public about the status of the city without fear of retribution from the elected mayor and city council members. The only concerns this officeholder should have are angry voters every four years when he or she is up for reelection and has a challenger, or upsetting the electorate and special interest groups so much that they mount a recall effort. However, for a city of 4 million people, it's very difficult to unseat an incumbent at the ballot box or through an organized recall. The current city controller for Los Angeles is Kenneth Mejia. Although he is not directly involved in the budget process, which is the job of the mayor and city council, he can still provide his insights and assist his constituents through messaging efforts. Mejia already messaged the fiscal distress that Los Angeles is facing when he Related Stories 4/24/2025 3/14/2025 He has been very candid about the financial status of this metropolis. So he felt the need to provide additional information when Mayor Karen Bass, also elected citywide, gave her State of the City Just like the governor of California proposes a budget and has the state Legislature review, amend, and approve it for his signature, the city of Los Angeles has its mayor submit her proposal to the city's 15 councilmembers, who do the same. Just like the state's independently elected controller, the city controller has no direct involvement in the process. However, Mejia decided to communicate five major highlights concerning the mayor's submission: A total of 1,647 city employees will be Of the vacant positions, 1,074 will be eliminated. Three departments—youth development, aging, and economic workforce development—will be consolidated. This is occurring because the city is facing a nearly $1 billion budget deficit due to record-level liability payouts, increased payroll costs, spending that has gone over budget, and revenue shortfalls. The annual budget is about $14 billion, with $6.5 billion being unrestricted, implying that the remainder is spent on federally and state-funded programs. Overall, the city has some 38,000 positions with 32,405 employees. The layoffs would be a 5 percent reduction in actual staffing. Going forward, the eliminated positions are gone and will not be reintroduced until future budget years when funds are available. Consolidating departments should mean that there will be one department head versus three. It should also mean that various management positions can also be cut by two-thirds, like having only one human resources manager. One can focus the woes on the recent fires, but there were already cracks in the foundation due to litigation settlements and departments spending more than they were budgeted. This was exacerbated when budgeted revenues did not appear as projected. And every city is seeing increased contributions to pension plans as public employee unions want a very generous defined benefit plan and raises. You can have one or the other, but wanting both is an obvious budget buster. July 1 will come quickly, and L.A.'s full-time city council will be deliberating the next two months on what they will agree to in the mayor's proposed budget and what they propose to modify. It's simple math. So, increasing spending in certain areas will involve decreasing spending elsewhere. Expect Mejia to provide continuing messaging on the process over the coming days and weeks. I had the uncomfortable duty of being the chairman of the Orange County Board of Supervisors in 2008, the year of the Great Recession, requiring the laying off of 1,000 of the county's 18,000 employees. Trust me when I say that this is not an easy or fun function to perform. But, short of unwise internal and external borrowing, making the cuts is the appropriate course of action. And Los Angeles is Kicking the can down the road is not a solution. It's time for action. Continue to keep us informed, Kenneth Mejia. Views expressed in this article are opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.
Yahoo
21-03-2025
- Automotive
- Yahoo
L.A.'s parking enforcement problem
Los Angeles has a budget problem. Well, another budget problem. According to a recent report from independent news organization Crosstown LA, the city is fighting a losing war over parking and parking enforcement. Crosstown analyzed data provided by City Controller Kenneth Mejia, which showed that L.A. is spending tens of millions more on parking enforcement than it is receiving from parking tickets. In the fiscal year that ended in June 2024, after giving out 2 million parking tickets, the city collected about $110 million in parking fines. Meanwhile, according to Mejia's data, it was spending $88 million on parking enforcement expenses like salaries and equipment. But when the cost of pensions and other obligations and liabilities were added to the mix, that figure jumped to more than $176 million. A $65 million shortfall. A $65 million shortfall when the city is experiencing a significant budgetary crisis that it needs to address. The parking enforcement problem isn't new. The city hasn't made money by issuing parking tickets since 2016. But there doesn't seem to be any end in sight. The COVID-19 pandemic exacerbated the existing problem with parking restrictions temporarily or permanently lifted in some places. Revenue in the fiscal year that ended in June 2021 was down 37% from the prior year. Fewer people are also commuting and filling the city centers than pre-pandemic times, meaning less cars overstaying their welcome or parking where they shouldn't. Steet sweeping tickets are lucrative for L.A. — but not enough And the existing budget crisis is likely to only make the problem worse, Crosstown says, citing an interview with Department of Transportation spokesman Colin Sweeney. Staff cuts and open positions left vacant are another main culprit for the decrease in parking enforcement fines. The City eliminated more than 60 positions in the 2024-25 budget, Sweeney said. Dozens of traffic officers have also retired. And since the COVID-19 pandemic, traffic officers have taken up different non-revenue-generating roles, initially helping with COVID-19 testing and vaccination sites, providing traffic control during events, and even helping with Mayor Karen Bass's pet project Inside Safe, which brings the unhoused off the streets and into more appropriate temporary housing. Sweeney says LADOT is advocating for more officers to be hired as part of the next city budget, and the department will hope its pitch will be heard before the budget is finalized April 21. To read the full story, including the methodology used by Crosstown, click here. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
11-03-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
City Controller Dances to Kendrick Lamar While Calling Out Officials
L.A. City Controller Kenneth Mejia posted his take on the wildly popular Kendrick Lamar "They Not Like Us" Super Bowl performance, dancing with his dogs and staff while suggesting his office was prevented from conducting a proper audit of the city's homeless as he dances in front of City Hall holding his two dogs on leashes, claims that the City Attorney Hydee Feldstein Soto blocked his attempts to audit "a mayoral program unless the mayor consents." To the tune of Lamar's lyrics he dances with staffers with the words, "We Tried. We Tried. We Tried." Watch below or by clicking bizarre response to a draft of a court-ordered report released Thursday by global consulting firm Alvarez & Marsal that analyzed four years of homeless services managed by the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority (LAHSA) found staggering levels of mismanagement and unaccounted for taxpayer monies. The audit claims that information gaps and incomplete data stymied investigators from accessing the results of approximately $2.4 billion in homeless spending over that time period, a staggering sum. U.S. District Judge David O. Carter mandated the audit as part of a 2020 lawsuit filed by the L.A. Alliance for Human Rights, a coalition of local business owners and residents who accused the city of failing to address homelessness, and as a result put public health and safety at risk. Mayor Karen Bass has made homelessness a centerpiece of her administration, but did not immediately address concerns about the spending raised by the audit. Last week she posted photos of workers from her Inside Safe program on social media. Mejia has posted a tracker of homeless spending on his website. Stay in the Know! Get the top news from Los Angeles Magazine sent to your inbox every day. Sign up for The Daily Brief below or by clicking here.
Yahoo
11-03-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
L.A. City Controller Rings Alarm Bell on City Finances
L.A. City Controller Kenneth Mejia painted a bleak picture of the state of Los Angeles's city budget in a revenue forecast report sent last Friday to the mayor and City Council. His report predicts that the revenue this fiscal year will fall $140 million short of the adopted budget, along with facing an additional $73 million decrease in the next fiscal year. This is coupled with the second year in a row that the City Administrative Officer projects a budget deficit. Combined with the fact that the city is expected to overspend by $300 million, a revenue shortfall leaves the council with a substantial gap to make of the reasons given for the revenue forecast in the City Controller's report are the new federal administration's extreme approach to tariffs, a continued trend of automation in industries that have been reliable sources of city revenue, and the lasting effects of the fires in January. Council Budget Chair Katy Yaroslavsky says the city faces $100 million in LAFD overtime. The fires also laid bare the unsatisfactory state of the departments' facilities, which the city would urgently need to address by upgrading them. Other councilmembers believe a part of the budget problem can also be attributed to general waste, particularly after an audit released Thursday exposed that a significant amount of the money for homeless services could not be insists that the budget problem is a long-term one — Mejia agrees. 'Our short-term focus on year-to-year balance neglects the need for a multi-year transition to service models that allow the City to live within its means,' writes Kenneth Mejia. 'Any conceivable plan for a sustainable and equitable operating and capital budget must have broad-based support from community, labor, business and other vital stakeholders.' Never Miss a Beat! Subscribe to Los Angeles Magazine's The Daily Brief for daily updates delivered straight to your inbox. Join below or by clicking here.
